Another reason to love science fiction fandom…

Terry Pratchett, the world’s funniest fantasist, has donated half a million pounds sterling (well over a million dollars) for research into the causes and cures of Alzheimer’s Disease. Which might prompt most people to say, “Hey, good for Terry.” But it’s prompted a lot of SF fans and writers to say, “Hey, that’s a pretty good start,” and launch their own effort to match Terry’s incredibly generous donation.

The effort was launched by Pat Cadigan (a terrific writer herself, queen of cyberpunk and once one of the Wild Cards gang), and has been snowballing rapidly with lots of other fans and writers joining in. “It looks like the blogosphere is making the fight against Alzheimer’s a whole lot stronger,” a spokesman for the Alzheimer’s Research Trust wrote to Pat, as she reported on her own Live Journal. At the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, we’ve been overwhelmed by the support from around the world since Terry’s donation and speech on Thursday. It’s completely unprecedented for us: we’re truly grateful.”

There’s all sorts of ways that you too can help, and I hope you will.

You can just go to http://www.alzheimers-research.org.uk/ and donate however much you can spare. Tell them it’s for Terry Pratchett, so it will count as part of the Match It For Pratchett campaign.

Or you can go to http://poosk.com/2008/03/14/match-it-for-pratchett/ and buy the Match It For Pratchett t-shirt. All profits will go to Alzheimer’s research.

Or you can head on over to ebay at http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZbenveniste and bid on one of the books I’ve donated to the campaign. Let’s see, there’s a copy of the deluxe leather-bound GAME OF THRONES rpg from Guardians of Order (out of print), a signed hardcover of my young adult book THE ICE DRAGON (illustrated by the wonderful Yvonne Gilbert), a presentation copy of the signed limited illustrated edition of FEVRE DREAM from Subterranean Press (sold out), a hardcover copy of SHADOW TWIN, the novella on which HUNTER’S RUN was based (signed by me, Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham), a hardcover of the new Wild Cards book INSIDE STRAIGHT (signed by seven of the nine contributors), and all sorts of other great stuff… including a set of bound galleys of GOOD OMENS, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. All monies raised will go to Alzheimer’s research, and there are some great collectibles on offer, so please, head on over to ebay and bid, bid, BID.

There’s also an official Match It For Pratchett website where you can check out the latest news about the campaign — and there should be plenty of news in the weeks and months to come, with more auctions, merchandise, contests, and other fund-raising efforts being planned. Bookmark http://www.matchitforpratchett.org/

This is a great cause headed up by some great people. They’ve already raised a lot of money, but there’s still a long way to go to match Terry’s donation. Please help.

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